The chief of the division of oil and gas resources management, upon the chief's own motion or upon application of an owner, may hold a hearing to consider the need or desirability of adopting a special order for drilling unit requirements in a particular pool different from those established under section 1509.24 of the Revised Code. The chief shall notify every owner of land within the area proposed to be included within the order, of the date, time, and place of the hearing and the nature of the order being considered at least thirty days prior to the date of the hearing. Each application for such an order shall be accompanied by such information as the chief may request. If the chief finds that the pool can be defined with reasonable certainty, that the pool is in the initial state of development, and that the establishment of such different requirements for drilling a well on a tract or drilling unit in the pool is reasonably necessary to protect correlative rights or to provide effective development, use, or conservation of oil and gas, the chief, with the written approval of the technical advisory council on oil and gas created in section 1509.38 of the Revised Code, shall make a special order designating the area covered by the order, and specifying the acreage requirements for drilling a well on a tract or drilling unit in the area, which acreage requirements shall be uniform for the entire pool. The order shall specify minimum distances from the boundary of the tract or drilling unit for the drilling of wells and minimum distances from other wells and allow exceptions for wells drilled or drilling in a particular pool at the time of the filing of the application. The chief may exempt the discovery well from minimum acreage and distance requirements in the order. After the date of the notice for a hearing called to make the order, no additional well shall be commenced in the pool for a period of sixty days or until an order has been made pursuant to the application, whichever is earlier. The chief, upon the chief's own motion or upon application of an owner, after a hearing and with the approval of the technical advisory council on oil and gas, may include additional lands determined to be underlaid by a particular pool or to exclude lands determined not to be underlaid by a particular pool, and may modify the spacing and acreage requirements of the order.

Nothing in this section permits the chief to establish drilling units in a pool by requiring the use of a survey grid coordinate system with fixed or established unit boundaries.

Amended by 129th General AssemblyFile No.28, HB 153, §101.01, eff. 9/29/2011.

Effective Date: 06-14-2000 .